With the increasing capacity and storage of smartphones, tablets, or other mobile computing devices, more and more confidential data files and documents are now being processed and/or stored on mobile computing devices. While this brings convenience to users with easier and quicker access to their data, this may raise security concerns in certain circumstances, especially when a user loses physical possesion or control of his/her mobile computing device.
To address security concerns, mobile computing devices nowadays are equipped with certain high-security access modes, such as eight digit pin, password, or multi-factor authentication mode. However, these high-security access modes are generally more complicated and less convenient than the low-security access modes, such as four digit pin or fingerprint scan, and thus generally are less popular, especially for frequently used mobile computing devices such as smartphones. For instance, four digit pin access mode and biometric scanning mode are generally more convenient and thus are more widely used among smartphone owners.
It would be desirable to address these issues.